As The Patriot Ledger celebrates 175 years of publication this year, we're taking a look at other local businesses with big anniversaries in 2012. We interviewed Rob Hale, the owner of Granite Telecommunications in North Quincy, to find out more about his fast-growing business as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. The...

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

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Posted Aug. 24, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 24, 2012 at 9:12 AM

Posted Aug. 24, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 24, 2012 at 9:12 AM

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We interviewed Rob Hale, the owner of Granite Telecommunications in North Quincy, to find out more about his fast-growing business as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. The company, which resells and consolidates land-line accounts for multi-location businesses, has become one of the South Shore’s biggest employers. The following is an edited version of that exchange.

How has your business changed since its inception?

We’ve become national. We focus on larger customers. Our customers are big retailers, big real estate companies, health care organizations that have multiple locations. So the niche that we’ve evolved into is multi-location, national companies.

I think we thought we were going to be a regional phone company at the beginning. But this opportunity was explained to us by our customers. We shifted directions and it worked out for the best.

How has your industry changed over that time?

It’s shifted so that what we do from a Wall Street perspective is no longer intriguing: Land-line telephone accounts are not growth vehicles, according to Wall Street and the finance community. And yet the retailers – like Wal-Mart, Target, Lowe’s and Kohl’s – still rely on them.

We’re not a public company. We are accountable to our teammates and our customers, and our customers rely heavily on analog telephone lines and yet the traditional providers of analog phone lines are not focused on them because they’re not a growth story. Verizon and AT&T want to be wireless companies and yet the business community and retail community need support for the analog lines.

What we do could be perceived as yesterday’s news, yet it’s vital for the people who need it and we’re good at it.

What kind of changes do you see on the horizon?

We started with seven people in 2002 and now we’re 1,000. The growth in jobs is to support our large customers, and that one-stop shop is what the big companies need because their budgets are being tightened. The model, while it applies to telephone lines, also applies to data lines and to alarm services. We’re replicating our model in different products.

Think about any company in America today. Sears, for example, they used to have 20 folks running their telephone services. Now they’re down to four or five. The work hasn’t diminished. We can become effectively an outsourced member of the team to help them be more efficient. We’re 1.25 million analog telephone lines, which is about 5.5 percent of the business lines in America.

How does your business differentiate itself from its competitors?

Page 2 of 2 - I would say A&T and Verizon are two of our big suppliers and yet they are our competitors. The stuff we focus on is just not important to them. The U.S. telecom landscape is regulated so there has to be different land-line providers for different regions. You can’t get AT&T in Quincy and you can’t get Verizon in Topeka. The organizations we support have thousands of stores and they want a one-stop shop and we give them that. That’s fundamentally different from everybody else.

What are some of the advantages and challenges of doing business in this region?

There are distinct benefits such as a highly educated and motivated workforce, and good public transportation. The challenges include the fact that it’s a competitive job market here among employers.

If your business is celebrating a milestone in 2012, share it with us. We'll be gathering information to presented online or in print as we celebrate The Patriot Ledger's 175th anniversary this year. Fill out our form to send us your details.